lights for birdsnest and monti

mr.clownfish

Active Member
i just got a new green w/ purple polyps birdsnest coral and a really nice green monti and i was wondering if my T-5 lighting was enough to keep them alive and healthy. i have 156 watts of HO T-5 lighting over a 40 gal. so its like 4 watts per gallon. 3 actnics; 2 blues and 1 purple. and one day light bulb. they are both placed at the top of my tank.
a couple of weeks ago i bought a small frag of monti and it bleached in a week. i just tested my water and the only problem i have is phosphate and its at like 0.3-0.5 which isnt enough to kill sps coral right?
everything else tested perfect. my calcium is at 400
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
H.O. is pretty much a neccessity from what ive read. can you post a name of your model or soemthing we can google?
and yes 0.5 is probably enough to take out your sps. anything over 0.3 is considered to retard the coral and 0.5 is deadly.
try some GFO or a turf scrubber to work those numbers down.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I have 336 watts over my 120 so I'm only getting 2.8 WPG of T-5 H.O. with individual reflectors and my monti cap and yellow birdsnest are doing sweet.
 

robertmathern

Active Member
You should be good with what you got gbn and monties are farily hardy sps corals. In fact I think you last one bleached from to much light. You should start them off in the sand and raise them up after a while.
 

nycbob

Active Member
i recalled u losing ur 1st sps a few weeks back. i also recalled advising u to take care of the water issue b4 buying more sps. u r not really giving ur new sps any chance if ur water isnt sps-acceptable. birdnest and monti dont need as much light as other sps, so u might get a way with 4 t5 bulbs. the phosphate and nitrate on the hand, r not good. try running rowaphos. a 250ml bottle is enough for ur 40 gallon and it comes with a media bag.
 

mr.clownfish

Active Member
Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3280488
i recalled u losing ur 1st sps a few weeks back. i also recalled advising u to take care of the water issue b4 buying more sps. u r not really giving ur new sps any chance if ur water isnt sps-acceptable. birdnest and monti dont need as much light as other sps, so u might get a way with 4 t5 bulbs. the phosphate and nitrate on the hand, r not good. try running rowaphos. a 250ml bottle is enough for ur 40 gallon and it comes with a media bag.
i got rowaphos like u said and it didnt really help much... i got my water tested by this FS in Long beach and they said my water was fine. but im not so sure, im just testing it out and if it dosent work them ill upgrade my lights and get a phosphate reactor. phosphate sux -__-
 

mr.clownfish

Active Member
you are right nycbob, i shouldn't have gotten them until my water was phosphate free. i shouldn't have listened to the FS. they told me my water was perfect and that a little phosphate wouldn't hurt them. and i just lost it that moment, the coral was right in front of me glowing and looking amazing, i couldn't walk away without it. It is the nicest monti i have ever seen, and the birdsents is really amazing too! now i feel really guilty
i just hope they can survive.
 

bill109

Active Member
your not really looking for watts per gallon. check out the archives section and read up on lighting. it will change your take on lighting..
impulse buys happen, however never listen to your lfs unless they are a reputable fs and have a good "record" so to speak in the area.
keep your phosphates low, use ro/di water (the purest type of water) and make sure your calcium, alkalinity, magnesium are in tact.
good luck.
-bill
 

mr.clownfish

Active Member
Originally Posted by bill109
http:///forum/post/3280722
your not really looking for watts per gallon. check out the archives section and read up on lighting. it will change your take on lighting..
impulse buys happen, however never listen to your lfs unless they are a reputable fs and have a good "record" so to speak in the area.
keep your phosphates low, use ro/di water (the purest type of water) and make sure your calcium, alkalinity, magnesium are in tact.
good luck.
-bill
i fell kinda dumb for asking but where is the archives section for lighting?
thanks for your help!
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Problem with WPG or anything else is that none of them are very accurate. I still use WPG just becuase its by far the easiest one to calculate. So many variables to conside no matter what method you use. T-5 HO, regular T-5, t-5 HO with individual reflectors, how many gallons the tank is, what depth the tank is, what depth the corals will be in the tank, how dirty the water is. ect ect ect. WPG might not be the best for exact measurements but it gets you close enough for most purposes IMO
 

mr.clownfish

Active Member
cool, so im thinking on upgrading my lights. definitely gonna research on the lamp im gonna get. its gonna have more than four bulbs and be HO for sure. im still gonna stick with T-5's cause i like how they dont use up too much electricity and they make the tank glow. =)
 
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